Tomorow I'm driving the '84 from Santa Rosa to San Diego, about 550 miles. I'll be there two days, then I'm driving it back. This is the second long-distance drive for the car since I reworked the motor, rebuilt the wiring harness, etc.; a week or so ago I drove it to Reno and back, total distance about 478 miles.

I fixed the driver's window mechanism yesterday. It broke years ago, and though I had bought a new elevator mechanism, I hadn't gotten around to installing it. It turned out to be a bit more complicated than just bolting in a new elevator; the door slot where the elevator arm pin rides back-and-forth was all chewed up. Also I was missing the plastic insert that goes into that door slot, and the pin spring clip was gone. The new elevators don't come equipped with new clips, for some stupid reason. Rather than wait for more parts to come in, I made do with avaialable materials. First I straightened out the bent door slot metal with pliers, a body hammer and dolly; then I cleaned it up using an angle grinder. Next I cut a strip of thin sheetmetal scrap and formed it around the chewed edge; then I tack welded it in place. At this point the window was ready to go in, but I found that the rubber that holds the window into the elevator clip had fallen apart. I cut new rubber strips out of some scrap material (ummm, windshield wiper blades) and fit them in place. Seems to work OK for now. Then I fashioned a "slider" piece out of plastic, so that the pin wouldn't have to rub on the metal edge of the door slot. Finally I made up a pin clip out of some more metal scrap (a computer chassis card knockout), using a cutting wheel tool to make the slot.

It all seems to hold together OK so far, but I've made a note to buy a new pin slot guide thingy, a new rubber window thingy, and some decent pin clips.


Last thing I have to do is check the tension in my timing belt. I had a mysterious change of timing during my trip to Reno.

Mike